Car bombs dominate the cinematic landscape in Kill the Irishman. They do so literally, as there’s practically a new explosion every ten minutes, and psychologically, as the fear of the bomb, the pervasive threat of a sudden and spectacular death, powerfully informs the lives of the gangsters in filmmaker Jonathan...

It’s still unclear what to expect from Jonathan Hensleigh’s Kill the Irishman, but Ray Stevenson, Vincent D’Onofrio, Christopher Walken, Val Kilmer and Linda Cardellini are involved, so it hardly matters. The plot focuses on a man the mob just can’t kill. Also, Christopher Walken and Val Kilmer are in a...